This invention relates in general to the construction of support devices for supporting elements at an elevation so that they may be lowered downwardly to a lower elevation and particularly, a support structure for life boats which is operable independently of any source of power.
There have been many instances in which life boats could not be launched from vessels because the davit mechanism for lowering the boat could not operate to present the boat outwardly away from a tilted side of the ship or far enough away from a ship which is in the stage of sinking, or at a precise location away from a ship which is the stage of sinking or at a precise location away from any falling debris or fire or wreckage. Known mechanisms which can be lowered by the power of the weight of the lift boat itself in some instances are still such that they operate only to lower the life boat downwardly directly alongside a side of the larger vessel carrying the boat. This means that in many instances in which the large ship is sinking, there are either obstacles in the path of lowering the boat or there is a danger that the lines will become fouled due to the large tilt of the ship or become endangered by some other reason due to the fact that the boat cannot be precisely positioned in water relative to the larger ship.